Technical Field
This disclosure relates to an image forming apparatus in which multiple recording media accumulated as a sheet stack in a sheet container pass one by one through a sheet separation nip region formed by a sheet feeding body and a sheet separating body to separate a recording medium that directly contact the sheet feeding body out of the multiple recording media and to feed the recording medium from the sheet container toward an image forming part provided in the image forming apparatus.
Related Art
As an example of known image forming apparatuses, some image forming apparatuses do not include a pickup roller and causes a sheet feed roller to function as a pickup roller. This configuration can achieve a reduction in cost without a pickup roller.
Such a known sheet feed roller form a sheet separation nip region with a sheet separating roller. A recording medium is held in the sheet separation nip region formed between the sheet feed roller and the sheet separating roller to be separated from the other recording media in the sheet container and be fed toward the image forming part further passing through some other nip regions including a sheet conveyance nip region formed downstream from the sheet separation nip region in a sheet conveying direction.
When a paper jam occurs in a vicinity of the sheet separation nip region, a jammed sheet is generally held in the sheet conveyance nip region at a leading end thereof and in the sheet separation nip region at a trailing end thereof. In order to remove an image forming apparatus having the above-described configuration, the sheet container that is attached to an apparatus body of the image forming apparatus is slidably detached from the apparatus body, so that a user can insert the hand into the apparatus body and grab the jammed sheet to be removed.
Further, when two or more sheets are held in the sheet separation nip region, a subsequent sheet that is conveyed after a preceding sheet can have crease or fold. However, if the image forming apparatus includes a one-way clutch, the crease or fold in the subsequent sheet can be prevented.